Welcome to In Business.

I'm Ken Beller.

This week's episode is a little different.

We're taking a look back at some of the topics we've covered so far.

We've been on the air for a couple of months now and our viewership has grown each and every week.

We thank you for watching and we appreciate your feedback.

We know a lot of you are new viewers and joining us each and every week.

So, we're going to go back tonight and take a look at some of the topics that we've covered that are still relevant.

Stay tuned for in business.

We begin tonight with a topic that since the very first episode has been one of the most requested because it has such a big effect on both employers and employees.

Child care.

Access to affordable, reliable, and on-time child care has become one of the biggest challenges facing our workforce.

Businesses are struggling to hire and retain workers, and many families are being forced to make difficult decisions.

We sat down with professionals from across the child care industry to talk about why this issue has become so critical and what it will take to address it.

Our guests this evening are Laura Mullen.

Laura is the chair of Duth's 1200 fund.

The 1200 fund is a city affiliated nonprofit that started in 1985 to foster the long-term viability and diversity of Duth economy by providing gap financing and funding options for local businesses.

Over time, the 1200 fund has additionally evolved to include an emphasis on supporting child care in our region as it directly impacts our workforce and loose business's ability to thrive.

Courtney Grryer is a northern Minnesota child care provider, trainer, consultant, and community organizer.

She is the executive director and owner of Minnie's Childare and Preschool Center in Esco.

She is a strong advocate for improving the current child care system.

Zayn Bale is the senior vice president of programs and development for the Northland Foundation.

Through a variety of programs and grants, the Northland Foundation works to increase and sustain the quality of child care in our region.

Thank you all for being here this evening.

It's great to see you.

We have assembled a wealth of expertise and opinions and we're going to discuss in the future of child care right now.

It's mentioned that the two hurdles for business and employees are access and affordability.

I'd like to start with you Zayn Bale from the Northland Foundation.

What is the role of your organization to partner with child care programs and uh across the region?

But let's start with this.

I did quote from uh Childc Careware Minnesota.

Uh what is that organization and what do they do?

Sure.

Sure.

Well, thanks so much, Ken.

I really appreciate being here and with this great um panel that you have today.

And uh again, the Northland Foundation is really working to increase and sustain childcare.

And we do that in a variety of ways.

We do that with funding, technical assistance, uh planning, and partnership building.

And those elements really help us um support our child care programs that are so vital to comm to our communities and businesses and families.

And we operate a number of programs to support childare.

And one of those programs is childcare aware.

And that is a statewide program in Minnesota.

It is funded by the state, the department of children, youth, and families.

And it covers all parts of the state.

And we serve the northeast region with this program which does three things.

One, it is designed to help families find child care and access child care.

Two, it provides support for quality programming and that's through coaching and professional development and going out to really support support child care programs to support children in their learning.

And third, we help navigate the child care business startup and sustainability work through childcare startup and retention navigators.

And we know childcare quality is so important because those first five years of life are just uh one-time opportunity and that economic impact of that early investment just continues on and on.

Laura, the 1200 fund is also involved in this.

What are some of the things that uh your organization does to support child care improvement?

Yes.

Well, absolutely.

We take the business side of this, but um businesses, small businesses in Duth can't function if there's not a workforce available.

And child care is a big piece of that.

Um we want to in have businesses come to Duth and all of the above.

But if there aren't child care slots, just like if there isn't housing, that is a huge problem.

It impedes the the economic impact of duth.

So the 1200 fund came along.

Um even though our primary focus is gap financing for business, we have done multiple um initiatives that support child care in this way.

Courtney Grryer, we heard that uh obviously this is an issue for retaining employees, recruiting employees.

It's a business issue as Laura just said.

Um we're in a tough situation in your estimation.

Are we close to a breaking point?

How close are we?

Uh I think that we've been at a breaking point for years and the reality is is providers have been hiding that for fear of you know families being nervous and and a lot of like the the outcome of saying our businesses are broken and uh the care really has been subsidized in many many ways for years on the backs of employees who are making low wages, lack retirement, lack um health healthare all of those things, personal savings of providers, foundations, um it's being subsidized currently and the reality is it's been broken.

So, um and then you've got all of these other things happening that really are pushing us over the edge.

And the fear is if we lose any funding, we will close our doors.

providers across the Northland, not, you know, not just my own center, but providers across the Northland and across the state will really struggle with any loss of funding.

Zayn, Laura, real quickly, a last word.

Where do you see the future going?

Well, my hope is like Courtney said, it's we see child care as critical infrastructure and that we figure out how to prioritize that investment and that we continue to support the different types of business models, the family child care, the centers, you know, families that have grandparents taking care of their children.

We need that mixed delivery system and to support our our our whole region, our whole our rural communities that might not be able to have a center and that we make that investment so that we in 10 years from now are talking about a thriving uh child care world and not worrying about um these short-term fixes that there's this long-term investment and plan and it's prioritized.

Laura Mullen, Courtney Grryer, and Zayn Bale.

Thank you very much for joining us and for being part of the conversation this evening.

Child care is just one of the many issues impacting businesses today.

Another industry facing the uncertain future is the growing market for THC infused beverages.

A potential federal hemp ban could have a major impact on companies that have built a significant part of their industry around these products.

We visited Bent Paddle Brewing here in Duth to see how these beverages are made and to learn what a ban could mean for their business and others like it.

This is in business.

Uh we're in the western sections of Duth Minnesota, beautiful Lincoln Park, and we're with Brian Tonis.

Brian is the guy that had the Ben Paddle in Ben Paddle and is one of the founders and CEO and one of the people that worked on producing THC drinks.

Thank you for letting us come by and tell us how all this works.

Yeah, so we're in the uh main production facility here at Ban Paddle uh you know about a half a block away from our tap room uh in the original space but we first opened 13 years ago.

Um we produce beer here but we also produce on beverages.

um it's a larger and larger percentage of what we produce as the industry changes, as the beer industry fluxes and everything.

And so we produce everything here.

Basically, the process starts off over here in the brew house just like when you're producing beer.

Um only we're just producing water as the base stuff.

So we can add flavor ingredients, we can add sugar, we can add various other things.

Um so think of it as kind of like making soda, right?

If you pop.

So we start off on the brew house.

Uh we boil the water, the filtered water that we use.

to use the same water to make these beverages as we do our beer 100% like superior water.

And so, uh, we filter it, uh, we boil it to sterilize it, and at that point in time, we go through the process of basically trying to remove all the oxygen from it, just like a lot of other beverages that are made cuz oxygen will kill any beverage that you're putting in your package or stuff.

So, that's what happens here.

That part of the process takes roughly about an hour to an hour and a half.

Um, and then from there we move on down and we cool everything down in a uh heat exchanger.

Um, and then it rolls down this process through here.

We start injecting uh CO2 into it, start removing uh a little bit more of the oxygen lidic.

We can also do uh uh pH adjustments to get the beverage to where we want it flavor-wise.

This not only helps with shelf stability, but also uh the flavor side of the beverages as well.

What part of the process then is the uh THC ingredient added?

So the TFC uh is added after we make it through this entire part of the process.

We come down into these tanks right here which are the bright tanks.

This is where the process differs a little bit from beer.

Uh beer we produce basically word which is unfermented beer.

We add yeast and we fermented for anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks depending on the beer we're producing.

We skip that entire process for this beverage.

And so the beverage goes right into these tanks.

Uh we scrub them to make sure we remove as much oxygen as possible.

uh carbonate them.

Uh we testing throughout the entire part of the process.

Everything's done in a food safe manner uh like we do all of our other beverages.

Um and that is when we add the flavoring and then the last thing we do is we add the THC and you know there's some other kid cannon you can add CBD, CBN uh uh TBG um into it.

And so what we do is we take we take a sterilized uh brink and we add the uh the emulsion into we do all the calculations to make sure that we hit the potency exactly where it needs to be.

Uh we take it and we uh basically mix it into the tank.

Stir the tank up with everything in there.

We have a mixing protocol that we go through.

So it's a brick of the K product.

We get it in liquid.

You get so so what the uh the processors that we use uh we have two of them.

They're located in the Twin Cities that we use.

They use predominantly Minnesota Wisconsin based hemp.

Um, so they take the raw flour from the hemp plant and they process it, they extract out all the oils and then they distill that into the different canibonoids you can get out of hemp.

Small percentage of it is THC.

Uh, they take that, they distill it, separate it out and then they put that through an emulsifying process.

Uh so they combine it with different emulsifiers that are food based uh food grade emulsifiers to basically make the particle size as small as it can possibly be so it stays in solution within the beverage.

So we we do that and we uh infuse everything in there and at that point once we get the infusion done that's when we take samples out or we send them off to independent labs to make sure that we hit our dosing correct.

Um, one thing we did find out is that certain materials, raw materials that you add flavor-wise in there can interact the overall with the uh the product and and decrease the potency a little bit.

So, sometimes we need to give things a little bit of a bump to make sure that we're at the proper dosage for what's on the cans, the beverages we're producing.

Brian Tonis, one of the founders of Ben Paddle, it's CFO.

And your brewing experience goes back a long way.

Yeah.

Roughly 25 years.

And now you're in charge of production for Ben Paddle.

Yeah.

How did you ever get into doing THC products?

Um, you know, it's I I definitely enjoyed the products back in college.

Um, and uh, being in the beverage industry, uh, when the laws uh, changed in 2018, we started to look at it um, as a uh, as a beverage company.

Um, and then, you know, as the laws changed in the state of Minnesota, we were ready to dive straight in.

You know, the uh, the industry, the beer industry specifically has uh, has changed uh, quite a bit since co.

So, production's been down a little bit.

uh people have been exploring other you know other beverages other other means of relaxing and uh we decided to jump in jump in head first and now if this prohibition goes into effect what does that do to Ben paddle well uh production of leased beverages uh makes up about 40% of our revenue as a company and so if prohibition does go through we are going to look drastically different as a company if that happens uh means layoffs uh means maybe even possible closing our production facility um you know, laying off a bunch of employees.

Uh I don't really like to think about it, but it's definitely something we need to look at as uh as the deadline draws near.

Issues like these just don't impact individual businesses.

They shape the future of our entire regional economy.

Earlier this year, we sat down with Roger Reiner, mayor of Duth, along with Eda Rukavina, commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, and Ryan Mitch, executive director of business development.

They discussed where our economy has been and where it may be headed as we move into a new year.

With us is Duth Mayor Roger Reinard.

2026 starts Mayor Reiner's third year in office and he'll be sharing his vision for the year ahead.

Eda Rukavina is commissioner of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation.

Its mission is to enhance the economy of northeastern Minnesota's techite assistance area.

With her is Ryan Mitch.

He is the executive director of business development for Iron Range Resources.

Thank you all for coming.

And I want to start here in town with you, Mayor Reinard.

Um I know you're a runner, so I'll put this in uh in a frame that makes sense.

You're at the 13.1 mile mark of your first marathon as mayor, right?

What have you learned in the first half of the race that you are going to apply to the new year?

Well, I think a couple things.

One is that, you know, there's a difference between campaigning and actually serving.

You have to take those ideas you've spent a year talking to folks about and figuring out how you translate those into action.

You know, number two, the city of Duth is a huge entity.

Uh, and there's the city, the community, and then there's Capital C, City of Duth, the corporate entity.

You know, we're uh roughly 920 employees, about $13 million general fund operation.

We're the 10th largest employer in the city of Duth.

you know, so you walk in the door and try to figure out how is it that you take these things we've talked about, translate them into this huge uh entity that's bureaucratic by nature and then actually achieve outcomes.

So, you know, as you note, being halfway through that first term, this is the point at which, you know, I'm starting to feel some momentum.

You know, our leadership team is almost entirely rebuilt.

That took a good year to get that where it needed to be and then to build those partnerships outside city hall.

Uh and then between the two to get folks to understand here is the change in philosophy.

Um for us that means focusing a lot more on our core city services and delivering well on those being really responsible about our portion of the tax levy.

Um, and then also really focusing I think Miss Hayes, Professor Hayes did such a good job of talking about two issues that I'm sure we'll talk more about, but where uh we're seeing growth in our economic sector, especially on the manufacturing side and then what's our uh really big limiting factor and in Duth it's housing.

Our employers can't hire because we don't have the people and we don't have the people because we don't have the housing.

So, I'm excited for the next two years and really seeing us continue to make progress, but actually pick up the pace because we've now built the machine internally that we need in order to help move the community to where we think it needs to go.

Let's head north.

Uh, uh, you've had one more year on the job than the mayor has.

What is in your learning curve that is going to propel you and the organization Iron Range Resources into the future?

Um, thanks Ken.

Um yeah, I the Iron Range Resource is a little bit different than Duth.

Um geographically speaking, we have a lot larger of a territory.

Um but we work closely with Duth and all of the arrowhead.

Um you know, I came into my role three years ago.

This is my fourth year.

Uh there's been quite a bit of changes.

Um economic development in northern Minnesota is just different than some other parts of the state.

We're really heavily reliant on mining, natural resources, and sometimes uh what you want to do with economic development is impacted by outside factors.

And that we really saw this past year uh the market and what happens at a national scale and a statewide scale impacts our um e you know the economy of northern Minnesota.

So we saw two out of six tachinite mines um you know ramp down.

We have one completely idled, Minorca and um HIPPTAC that has um partially idled and so that impacted over 600 people.

Um they are still laid off today.

Um but more than just those families and for those families, they're feeling it.

I know they're, you know, on unemployment right now, but they're looking for what their next line is.

And that's when our agency really comes in.

Our job is to do economic development, to diversify, to look for other manufacturing that can compare to those types of jobs.

So, we've been doing that.

We're continuing to do that.

Um, but it is difficult in these times that uncertainty um looking for uh different types of manufacturing to bring that in when you have the uncertainty of what's going on at the federal level and the state level.

We'll talk about that shortly.

Ryan Mitch, you're with IR.

What is your job do and what do you see economically for the short term, maybe just this summer?

Yeah, thanks Ken.

Um so I oversee the business development team at ILR uh really coordinating and implementing the business incentive uh programs that we offer working with agency partners to help attract businesses to and retain the businesses operating within the tackite assistance area.

Uh I think looking ahead 2025 was a challenging year for a lot of folks.

there was higher interest rates, uh, inflationary pressures, uncertainty around federal policies and global conditions.

Uh, and I think, you know, going ahead, we're seeing some of those things start to, uh, stabilize and, uh, looking into 26, I think that, uh, you know, as uncertainty eases, uh, we'll see more, uh, more growthoriented, uh, economic environment.

Mayor Reinard, um, you mentioned it earlier, uh, uh, Professor Hayes mentioned it as well.

So, uh, what are we going to do about the housing situation?

Yeah.

In Duth, Minnesota, you know, and I think, uh, Professor Hayes also mentioned for after decades essentially of stagnant population from 1980 until the last uh, couple of years, Duth effectively did not grow in population uh, after decreasing from the high point in the 1960s.

So, not only as a community mentality, but frankly as a housing construction industry, what we learned to become really good at is the one-off custom home because we weren't building housing at scale.

I had a meeting just this morning with multiple different uh partners on housing in the community.

And what I shared with them is what we have to remember how to do is build housing at scale.

We're going to wrap up and um I just want to get a word from each one of you and a thumbs up, thumbs down or neutral.

Uh your optimism or for the year ahead?

Oh, two thumbs up.

I think we're well positioned for growth.

Anything on the range?

Um well, I'm a little bit hesitant just because we do not know what's going on with that mining market, but we have some exciting projects that are there for potential.

So, I I want to say thumbs up and I'm a little I'm a little bit here.

It's It's not completely up, but it's close.

Our guests have been uh Ryan Mitch.

He is the economic economic executive director for IRR.

Commissioner uh Rukavina is the commissioner of the Iron Range Resources.

And of course, the Honorable Roger Reinard is the mayor of Duth.

Thank you all very much for being with us this evening.

Oh, thanks.

Thanks for having us.

Before tonight's final story, here's a quick look at some top business news from across the region.

Lulu's Pizza in downtown Duth permanently closed its doors on February 13th.

The business was started by local siblings Connor Riley and Lucy Stoke Riley and opened in early 2020.

Despite surviving the pandemic and other challenges such as construction on Superior Street, Lulu's Pizza has become another instance of a Duth business shutting down its operations.

Hibbing public school staff members delivered a letter of no confidence in the district's school board leadership at a meeting held Tuesday night on the Iron Range.

Members of Ask Me Local 480 presented the letter calling for the board to take up and ratify a currently unresolved tentative agreement.

Union leaders also demanded the resignation of board chair John Burkelich and board treasurer Clim Mclofflin.

The new tractor supply company store is set to open in Cloquet on February 21st.

The store offers a wide array of products such as farm supplies, pet and animal supplies, and feed, as well as selling clothes, tools, and much more.

The Natural Resources Research Institute, Colarrain Minerals Processing Laboratory could be expanding to develop a federal mining proving ground.

The Minnesota Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation approved a $2 million grant to support potential development of a mine of the future proving ground initiative at the Colar Rain Laboratory.

If developed, the nearly $40 million project would work on advanced mineral processing, AI enabled sensing, incorporating modernized flow sheets, and critical mineral recovery.

And finally, we take a look back at one of our segments, the Orange Cone Construction Zone, where we highlight ongoing projects that are shaping the future of our region's infrastructure and its economy.

We've traveled to Minnesota's glorious Iron Range and we brought our orange cone with us because this is another orange cone construction zone.

We're in beautiful downtown Hibbing right here on Howard Street, the main drag.

Now, I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin.

And our main drag was the uh oh, high school truent officer.

We're on Howard Street in the 400 block.

These vacant buildings behind me and that empty parking lot will be transformed over the next couple of years into a four-story mixeduse building.

The Hibbing Economic Development Authority got a little start money from the IRR, but they're redeveloping this on their own as a city project.

Four stories, mixed use, one to threebedroom apartments for workforce and for middle-income families.

Mixed use on the bottom and a 24.3 million project for those 56 units of housing that will transform the downtown of Hibby because this is an orange cone construction zone scheduled for completion in September of 2027.

This is another orange cone construction zone, 2403 West 6th Street in Duth.

This dilapidated old building, an eyesore, but starting this spring, it's going to be rejuvenated, reused, and saved.

And it's a very historic building.

You know, back in the day, before you went to the supermarket, parked in the parking lot, walked in, and this huge big array of food was there for you, you had the corner grocery store.

And that's what this is.

F. Bellinger started this in 1916 and this was a corner grocery store.

His apartment was upstairs for his family and he rented out the other apartment upstairs for another family.

It's fallen into disrepair now, but it's got local landmark status as a historic spot because it's an end of an era.

There aren't quarter grocery stores anymore, but the developers starting this spring are going to turn this into six apartments.

And over there, a subscription laundromat.

Yep, it's an orange zone.

Construction zone.

We're in downtown Virginia for another orange cone construction zone.

Taken together, downtown Virginia along Chestnut here on the main drag has gone through an incredible renovation project and has been doing what all downtowns want to do, which is rehabilitation.

And one by one, the businesses along Chestnut have been doing just that over the last couple of years.

Individual projects range from 70,000 to 120, some to 150,000.

But when you add it all together, you see a revitalization of Chestnut in downtown Virginia.

Some of the projects, the Arrowhead Bar at 412, just down the block.

Northeast Technical Services, they did an expansion and a remodel.

The Makeo Theater got some work done.

Rocks the Jewelers.

They did a renovation and it's a new location for them.

Five and go at Chestnut is a brand new business from 2024.

321 Graphics is at, go figure, 321 Chestnut and the Sugar Shack is right across the street from where we are now.

Taken together, these projects are renovating downtown Virginia because it's an orange cone construction zone.

I'm Ken Ber.

Thanks for watching In Business.

If you missed any parts of tonight's show, you can always watch it at pbsnorth.org or listen on Mondays at 5:30m on the North 1033.

Thanks again for watching and until next time, let's take care of each other.